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Erste Bank Eishockey Liga 2017/18

EBEL 2017/18 has already started, 2 rounds played so far. Zagreb is back after ending their KHL stint while Olimpija Ljubljana has finally pulled out and now competes in AlpsHL meeting their old rivals from Jesenice leaving the league again with 12 teams. TV coverage in Austria is again with ServusTV (who are decreasing their coverage) and SKY (pay TV).

Defending champs Vienna have started well thrashing Fehervar 9:1 in the first round and cleanly defeating runners up KAC in the second. Villach to much surprise of most started with two wins as well, on the other hand powerhouse Red Bull Salzburg started with two losses.

Interesting news came around today: EBEL, DEL and the Czech and Slovak Extraigas will have a joint All Star day on Feb. 17 in Bratislava with a select team from each league playing a round robin tournament. The format is interesting, games will be 2x15' 3 on 3 with rosters limited to 12 skaters and 2 goalies (max. 7 non domestic players).

Firmly on top of the standings are the defending champions Vienna Capitals with a flawless record of 7 regulation time wins. Across the seasons the Caps winning streak is by now at 19 games surpassing the previous record of KAC by already 2 games. The Caps roster has only slightly been altered in the off-season (captain Jonathan Ferland is certainly the most prominent player having left) and works brilliant.

Behind the Caps there's a big gap already, the considerably overhauled Black Wings Linz under their new coach Troy Ward occupy rank 2 with 16pts out of 8 games. Looks good but the Wings haven't really played all too convncingly relying a lot on stellar early season performnces by goalie Mike Ouzas.

A point behind Linz on third place (15pts, 8gp) there's Orli Znojmo, the Czechs who have just two import plyers on their roster (Canadian playmaker Colton Yellow-Horn and Slovak defender Marek Biro). Quite the contrary in terms of import players on the roster is the 4th ranked team of HC Innsbruck (14pts, 8 games) who have no less than 12 non-domestic players under contract. With this team the Tyroleans beat Znojmo 7:1 and still the Eagles top them in the standings which shows how tight the league is (behind Vienna).

On the fifth spot (12pts, 8gp) we have powerhouse Red Bull Salzburg who consolidated themselves in the last rounds after a very weak start into the season with three straight losses. Salzburg also lost veteran forward Daniel Welser who seemed to be in very good shape early on but suffered a stroke in his home (including a half sided paralysis which fortunately went away quickly) and is out for at least the season (if not forever). To compensate for the loss and also to power up the offensive deartment the Bulls have signed US forward Peter Mueller after round 6 - hell of a player.
Behind Slazburg on 6th place but tied in points (12 out of 8 games) there are the runners up from last season, KAC. The AUT record champions played prett well in the CHL games before the leagus start but then kind of stalled and onl got into gears slowly.

Ranked 7th (11pts out of 8gp) are the Graz 99ers who gave the league it's most hilarious game so far when the Styrians beat HC Bozen in round 6 at home with 8:7 after they had already trailed 1:5 and 7:4. GTG in the last minute and GWG less than 10' before the final buzzer...doesn't happen all too often. On 8th spot there's VSV after an unexpected strong start the Carinthians are not really showing anything special and coach Greg Holst who is more known to be a brilliant motivator than a cunning hockey strategist is already strongly under critizism.

Medvescak Zagreb in contrast on rank 9 have an improving shape, after a weak start (probably caused by the later start of the preparation) the EBEL returners from Croatia had 3 consecutive road games in the last three rounds and took 5 of their 8 pts (7gp) from those. EC Dornbirn and Alba Volan 19 Fehervar follow suit with 8 pts (but also 8gp) on ranks 10 and 11. Carrying the red lantern are Foxes of HC Bozen (7pts, 8gp) whose coach Pat Curcio is perceived as a fierce competior of Greg Holst in the race for first coach sacked in 17/18.

Still in firm first place after about 15 rounds (15 gp, 37pts, +26) played are the Vienna Capitals who extended their season overarching winning streak to a unique league wide record of 24 games before losing in SO to VSV. After that the Caps stayed streaky losing two more games. In the meantime the Caps also lost their starting goalie J-P Lamoureux to a longer lasting injury and reacted by signing former KAC netminder Pekka Tuokkola. The Caps are third in the leage attendence wise with appr. 4.100 per game. Given the success of the team and the nice 7k arena not too much for a city with almost 2 million inhabitants.

Following in 2nd place with a safety margin are the Black Wings Linz (15gp, 30pts, +11) who are playing an unspectacularily solid season so far. Spectator interest is strong as usual in Linz, the avg. attendance (4.600) is close to the capacity and the fact that the city after long years of absence is again represented in the country's top football league didn't hurt the interest in hockey.

Third place is toughly contested, right now KAC is occupying this spot with 27pts (16gp, -3). The Carinthians had a weak phase in September and early October but have consolidated since then and just today won the season's second prestigious local derby against the archrivals from Villach. Attendance is still rather weak for Austria's self proclaimed hockey capital, most likely caused by weak season the redshirts had before 2016/17 and the ancient arena with which KAC will most likely have to go for long years to come as both the city and the province are totally broke.

Close behind on 4th spot with 25pts (16gp, +5) follow the Sharks from Innsbruck who seem to have definitely have shaken off their bottom dweller existence of the seasons after their return to the league. Playing with a one of the highest numbers of imports from the Austrian EBEL teams (12 if I'm not mistaken) the club still sticks with the way of signing only Tyroleans as domestic players. Attendance is completely stable in Innsbruck, the club averages 2.200 per game (3.200 cap) with little variation. To bolster their offence HCI has added Danish international Morten Poulsen (previously also Graz99ers) recently after Jesse Mychan has returned to NA.

In pursuit with just 1 pts behind (24pts, 16gp, +5) on 5th are the Red Bulls Salzburg. Headcoach Greg Poss was/is already under heavy pressure (at least by the fans) after the weakest season start Salzburg has had in ages. In the last rounds the Bulls got going and are also the only EBEL team having made the CHL play-offs. Player wise the club has also reacted to the difficulties and added forwards Peter Mueller and just now returnee Rob Schremp to the roster. Two really great players on the EBEL level. One import (Alex Aleardi) has been released for point system reasons (and unconvincing performances) and the Bulls play with a fairly low number of imports (8 mostly) giving plenty of ice time to young and younger players from their academy. The average attendence of 2.500 is very decent for the spoiled Salzburg audience.

Tied at 23pts are Graz (6th spot, 16gp, -3) and Znojmo (7th, 16gp, -5). The 99ers are consistently inconsistent mixing wins and losses while Orli Znojmo were high up in the standings until a few rounds ago and then stalled with 5 consecutive losses (2 of wich in OT). Graz has its weak part defensively, esp. the loss of goalie Sebastian Dahm could not be compensated adequately as netminder Hannu Toivonen couldn't give the team the support needed so far. The 99ers are also the worst drawing team in the league averaging about 2.200 per game. Znojmo is still adjusting its roster with minor names coming in and leaving from/to other Czech clubs. Almost unnoticed went that the clubs legendary centerman, former Slovak NT player Peter Pucher (14 season with the Eagles) has left the club and is now playing in the Czech third tier. Without "Whitegloves" Pucher the Moravians rely on the fewest imports in the league, just goalie Tomas Halasz (SVK) and playmaker Colton Yellow Horn don't hold a CZE passport.

League returners Medvescak Zagreb with their import ladden roster are currently 8th, (14gp, 21 pts, +1), the Bears are very territorial, having earend 17pts at home and only 4 on the road (7games each). Recently the Croats have hired goaltender Kevin Poulin (Bary Astana) on the expense of Slovenian netminder Gasper Kroselj. In his very first game Poulin backstopped his team to a 4:1 win over Vienna saving al but one out of 51 shots (almost twice as muach as Zagreb managed) the Caps fired at him...same story in his second game (3:1 win vs. Innsbruck), 44 saves on 45 shots. Seems as this transaction is about to pay-off. With respect to attendence Medvescak leads the league with a good margin averaging appr. 5.100.

One spot behind on 9th (16gp, 20pts -4) is Villach, the Carainthians have achieved little so far other than ending Vienna's record winning streak. The Eagles don't seem to be well on the way tactically, head coach Greg Holst once hailed as a hero when taking over during the 2015/16 season seems to have run out of ideas how to have his team organize its game. Despite having the only purely domestic goalie duo in the league (David Kickert, Lukas Herzog) netminding is not an issue for VSV, rather it is offense as only Fehervar has managed less goals than the 43 Villach scored.

The Bulldogs Dornbirn (15gp, 18pts, -9) are currently 10th, with 10pts coming from their last 5 games ECD (among others against Salzburg, 2xKAC) is however showig a clear upward trend. French NT goalie Ronan Quemener has a hard time adequately replacing his compatriote Florian Hardy and with two youngsters with next to no senior experience (Karlo Skrec/CRO and Thomas Stroj) behind him all the pressure is his.

Miserable compared to the last seasons on 11th place are the Ittalian record champions from HC Bozen (15gp, 16pts, -2). Despite the usual roster of Italian NT players and uprising youngsters from the Italian clubs playing in the Alps Hockey League and plenty of (Italo) North Americans the team of head coach Pat Curcio isn't getting going. Very decent attendence (avg. 2.800) nevertheless. Apparently the Foxes are also unhappy with the performance of goalie Marcel Melichercik and just in the process of getting a new #1 netminder.

The red lantern in the league is carried by Fehervar AV 19 (16gp, 15pts, -23), the Hungarians have recently replaced their starting goalie (Mark Visentin/CAN out, Mac Carruth/USA in), brought back French NT defender Antonin Manavian and even signed Hungarian top player Janos Hari from Düsseldorf/DEL (first stint in playing senior club hockey in Hungary for him). Despite the meagre results the Devils still draw well averaging 2.800 at their home games.

Thx guys for your feedback, will try to be more frequent with the updates. Any discussion of course is welcome.

On the matter of Medvescak, I do see them getting into gears to be serious play-off contenders and currently they are 6th with one game less than all teams around them as Snapshot has pointed out. Kind of confusing was the game Linz vs. Zagreb on Friday where the Bears got pounded 8:1 by a host team missing plenty of key players due to injuries. Bears' goalie Poulin got pulled after conceding 4 goals in just 14 minutes. Back-up Rosandic allowed 4 more and despite those were stretched over the remainder of the game he looked pretty shaky (at least judging by the highlight video). But then just yesterday Medvescak won 7:3 against Bozen... so yeah, guess the Bears are on track.

Bozen is deep in trouble with two defeats in the last two games the Italians took over last place in the standings from Fehervar. Rumours are that coach Pat Curcio is likely to be replaced during the int. break.

On top of the standings Vienna has ended the short losing streak, two more wins for the Caps in the last two games. Interesting transfer news also from them, the Caps have signed AUT forward Peter Schneider who started his career in Vienna but has played in NA the last years (junior, college and now ECHL).

For Linz the int. break couldn't come at a better time, despite myself calling the Blackwings season "unspectacular" and solid by now there's so many players sidelined by injury that the effects can't be concealed. The league's top offensive defender Sebastien Piché is out since 2 weeks, Mario Altmann even longer and since yesterday also Jonathan D'Aversa and Marc-André Dorion are injured. Among the forwards grinder Patrick Spannring is sidelined since weeks and Andreas Kristler hasn't played a single game so far this season. Linz' coach Troy Ward so far has compensated the missing players by adding players from the juniors to the roster which is nice to see but if some of the injuries are longer lasting I guess we will see a reaction on the transfer market.

Thx guys for your feedback, will try to be more frequent with the updates. Any discussion of course is welcome.

On the matter of Medvescak, I do see them getting into gears to be serious play-off contenders and currently they are 6th with one game less than all teams around them as Snapshot has pointed out. Kind of confusing was the game Linz vs. Zagreb on Friday where the Bears got pounded 8:1 by a host team missing plenty of key players due to injuries. Bears' goalie Poulin got pulled after conceding 4 goals in just 14 minutes. Back-up Rosandic allowed 4 more and despite those were stretched over the remainder of the game he looked pretty shaky (at least judging by the highlight video). But then just yesterday Medvescak won 7:3 against Bozen... so yeah, guess the Bears are on track.

Against Linz Medvečak also played without several regular players such as Perkovich, Netik, Puskarich. I would say it was just one of those nights...thankfully Medvescak responded very well against (weak) Bozen.

If everyone will be healthy and if club keeps Poulin maybe Medvescak can do some damage in playoffs.

As the league is on hold for the national team break Blackwings Linz have reacted to the injuries in their D-corps (Jonathan D'Aversa out for at least a month, Sebastien Piché and Mario Altmann also still sidelined) and have sigend 34yr old Canadian stay-at home defender Shane O'Brien (+500 NHL games until 2015, last season briefly with HPK/Liiga).

Three rounds played after the November international break, here's a quick league review:

Still on first place but by far not as dominant es they used to be are the Vienna Capitals (2gp, 46p, +32; L to Graz/road, - W over Znojmo/home - L to Fehervar/home); Short term goalie Pekka Tuokkola has left the team again after Jean-Philippe Lamoureux's return from injury. As forward Jerome Samson is out for longer with an injury the Caps have brought AUT forward Peter Schneider back from NA. Schneider played his youth hockey in Vienna before going international in Czech, American juniors, college and since last year in the ECHL as a pro.

2nd place currently occupied by Blackwings Linz (21gp, 38pts, +14; W over Innsbruck/home, OTL to Dornbirn/road, OTL to KAC/home), who saw the debut of ex-NHLer Shane O'Brien on Tuesday. The towerign stay-home defenseman is visibly not in top shape physically (little surprise as he apparently had already quit professional hockey and now only comes back for "one more year") with quite some extra kilos on him but nevertheless shwoed a strong presence and no-bs performance in the few shifts he got in his first game. Forward Andreas Kristler finally also had his debut for the Blackwings in this game coming back from a long lasting knee injury just to have to pull out of the game because of a strained muscle...what a misery.

Tied in points on 3rd place is Klagenfurt (21gp, 38pts, +5; W over Fehervar/road, OTW over Linz/road, W over Zagreb/home); The redshirts are the only AUT team in the league in which the domestic players lead the internal scoring list. The only import under the top 5 scorers is Jamie Lundmark at #4. Very strong season so far by 23yr old AUT forward Johannes Bischofberger as KAC's #1 scorer so far - although with only 18pts in 19 games he already tied his scoring output of the entire previous season.

With some gap in 4th place are Red Bulls Salzburg (21gp, 32pts, +5; L to Zagreb/road, OTW over Graz/home, W over Bozen/road); The fans still massively dislike Greg Poss as hc but the Bulls are up there and also quite narrowly failed to make the CHL 1/8-final after their one goal aggregate score defeat to the SEL leaders Växjö Lakers. So in terms of results nothing much to complain and with the late acquisitions of Peter Mueller and Rob Schremp Salzburg is offensively definitely a power in the league.

Snuk up into 5th place on the virtue of a strong home game record (6 wins in a row, 26 out of 30 possible pts) is Medvescak Zagreb (19gp only 30pts, -1; W over Salzburg/home, L to KAC/road); with Tyler Morley (CAN, previously AHL) the Croats have the EBL top scorer in their team and should the Bears start to win some road games too in the next time they are definitely heading for top 3.

In 6th place which would imply the direct qualification for the play-offs by making the top 6 pool of the intermediate stage there are the Graz 99ers (21gp, 30pts, -2; W over Vienna/home, OTL to Salzburg/road, W over Villach/home); Goalie Toivonen has consolidated his game recently and so the Styrians are steadily gathering points. Same goes for SLO forward Ken Ograjensek who leads the team in scoring - strong season by the 26yr old player from Celje.

On a strong downward trajectory is HC Innsbruck, currently dropped to 7th place after the Sharks were as high up as 3rd place in the standings already (21gp, 29pts, 0; L to Linz/road, L to Bozen/road, OTL to Znojom/road); Despite having a few players in top positions of the league scoring list (Andrew Yogan in 2nd place, total of 4 players among the top 10 scorers) things are not working out for HCI lately. Coach Rob Pallin is busy mixing the lines trying to find better combinations but the prospect of a second consecutive direct play-off qualification seems in jeopardy right now.

Also on the way down after a very decent first part of the season is HC Znojmo (21gp, 28pts, -6; W over VSV/home, L to Vienna/road, OTW over Innsbruck/home); The Moravian Eagles have reacted rosterwise and signed some new players (among them US forward Adam Miller coming from Rouen/Ligue Magnus) and released some others (mostly younger guys).

Not going anywhere right now much to the frustration of the hockey crazy people in Villach is VSV, currently on 9th place (21gp, 27pts, -4; L to Znojmo/road, OTL to Fehervar/home, L to Graz/road); Coach Greg Holst seems to have run out of ideas how to get his team going and except for the addition of defender Samuel Labrecque no roster changes have been made. Looks to me like another season without play-off participation is in the making in Villach.

On 10th place but with at least some upward trend are the Bulldogs Dornbirn (20gp, 26pts, -10; W over Bozen/home, OTW over Linz/home, L to Innsbruck/road); The team from Vorarlberg has lately released French NT goalie Ronan Quemener and replaced him with Rasmus Rinne (FIN) who has shifted around in Liiga and Mestis in the last seasons. Definitely doesn't seem like a bulletproof upgrade but maybe the tall finnish keeper can give some more stability.

Still on 11th place but also with an upward trend is Fehervar AV 19 (21gp, 26pts, -25; L to KAC/home, OTW over Villach/road, W over Vienna/road); After hiring a new goalie (Mac Carruth), the return of French NT defenseman Antonin Manavian the Hungarians have now hired ex Linz defender Brett Palin (so far without a club this season). Neverthless the Devils were pounded heavily in their last home game they surrendered to Klagenfurt with a 1:7 scoreline.

In 12th and last place and the only team really looking to be out of contention right now are the Italian record champoins of HC Bozen (21gp, 22pts, -8; L to Dornbirn/road, W over Innsbruck/home, L to Salzburg/home). Another new goalie has been brought in (Jakub Sedlacek/CZE from Hradec Kralove, before him the Foxes signed Matt Climie/CAN) and with the Italo-Canadians Angelo Miceli (ECHL) and Steve Pietrobon (NCAA with 2gp in the ECHL) and Finnish Mathias Sointu (Ilves/Liiga) three skaters (all forwards) have arrived. Media reports say that coach Pat Curcio has been given two more games for his team to reap some points and turn the tide by club boss Dieter Knoll. If not the first coach losing his job in this EBEL season should be happening.

Snuk up into 5th place on the virtue of a strong home game record (6 wins in a row, 26 out of 30 possible pts) is Medvescak Zagreb (19gp only 30pts, -1; W over Salzburg/home, L to KAC/road); with Tyler Morley (CAN, previously AHL) the Croats have the EBL top scorer in their team and should the Bears start to win some road games too in the next time they are definitely heading for top 3.

Crucial for Medvescak will be return of Balej, Perkovich and Deutsch. Cameron is playing mostly with three lines and the third one is producing very little offensivly. Also he is using mostly five defenders (Cepon few shifts per game). No depth for something more than playoffs.

But Mahbod - Morley - Olden line is really tearing it up. They are on pace to become best line in Medvescak's EBEL history (1. Kinasewich - Prpic - Hecimovic, 2. Hecimovic - Ouellette - Guidarelli).

And Pat Curcio being fired in Bozen is not the only coach having to look for a new job anymore since today. Fehervar AV19 has sacked head coach Benoit Laporte. Some rounds ago, with a new goalie and new skaters it seemed that the Hungarians could make a move from out of the very low ranks of the league but lately the results have turned to the worse again which apparently forced the club to react.

Red Bulls Salzburg has also hired new personell, in this case it is not a new coach but due to the injuries to defensemen Dominique Heinrich and Matt Generous with Martin Stajnoch (SVK; previously KHL/VHL) a new D-corps member.

Fehervar AV19 has already found a new coach. Actually it is an old coach as the Hungarians signed Hannu Jäärvenpää who already had a stint with the team in 2015/16 (and previously coached Olimpija Ljubljana and Villach in EBEL).

And here wo go again: after losing to Innsbruck at home Villach has released Greg Holst who was brought back 2 yrs ago in emergency after Hannu Jäärvenpää had been fired. With really meagre results of the team this season the pressure is on and until a new head coach is found assistant Markus Peintner will take over.

In Bozen there's another new goalie btw. Jakub sedlacek who had just been signed 2 weeks ago left the club again to join Slovan Bratislava. As replacement the Foxes have hired Pekka Tuokkola (last season KAC) who just had a brief stint with the Vienna Capitals to fill in for Jean-Philippe Lamoure when the Caps #1 was injured.